13-year-olds ready to Hack the North

WATERLOO — In what is believed to be a first for one of Canada's largest hackathons, two Grade 8 students will take part in a competition that is normally the domain of university undergrads from around the world.

Instead of attending Friday classes at Centennial Public School in Waterloo, Adam Martinez and Ethan White will be at Hack the North at the University of Waterloo.

Hack the North is billed as the largest hackathon in Canada. The weekend competition attracts 1,000 students who form teams and have 36 hours to complete a meaningful software or hardware project.

Among the judges this year are Eric Migicovsky, UW grad and founder of smartwatch maker Pebble, and Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian.

Martinez and White will be writing computer code and building a prototype of their idea to help farmers get the most from their fields. They want to make a smart device that measures the nutrient profile of soil, presents the information in easy-to-understand graphics, and recommends what should be done to improve its fertility.

"You basically stick something in the soil and it will do all the data collection," White said.

The close friends attend enrichment courses in math at UW and weekend meetups for computer programming. Martinez also has a membership at the Perimeter Institute of Theoretical Physics, and attends lectures and events at the institute.

In June, Martinez and White were talking about entering a hackathon and they set their sights on Hack the North, even though the website says the competition is open to university undergrads and some exceptional high school students.

"But we said: 'Why not? Let's see what happens,'" Martinez said.

The 13-year-olds submitted resumés that detailed their computer-related accomplishments. White also built a website, and Martinez included findings from his microbiology experiments. When the organizers contacted the two with additional questions, Martinez and White got excited. When they were accepted into Hack the North, they could hardly believe it.

"I didn't actually expect to get in," White said.

Martinez loves doing math. Writing computer code provided him with another outlet for thinking about and applying math. He works in HTML, JavaScript, CSS, Java and Python.

White has been writing code for years, as well. "Actually, my dad, when I was five, showed me how to create a website. And he came home the next day to find that I had been working on it in his absence, and so then he showed me how to use this thing called GameMaker."

GameMaker is a drop-and-drag program for creating a computer game. From there, White learned how to use Visual Basic and a list of other computer languages.

White and Martinez both play piano and are studying in the Royal Ontario Conservatory's program. Martinez plays at the Conservatory's Grade 7 level, and White at the Grade 3 level. Martinez also plays the violin.

In the basement of his family home in Conestogo, Martinez keeps a fish tank where he breeds different species. He is fascinated by biology and the natural world. He and White work in a nearby room where there is a desk for two laptops, a whiteboard on one wall and some bookshelves on another.

13-year-olds ready to Hack the North

WATERLOO — In what is believed to be a first for one of Canada's largest hackathons, two Grade 8 students will take part in a competition that is normally the domain of university undergrads from around the world.

Instead of attending Friday classes at Centennial Public School in Waterloo, Adam Martinez and Ethan White will be at Hack the North at the University of Waterloo.

Hack the North is billed as the largest hackathon in Canada. The weekend competition attracts 1,000 students who form teams and have 36 hours to complete a meaningful software or hardware project.

Among the judges this year are Eric Migicovsky, UW grad and founder of smartwatch maker Pebble, and Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian.

Martinez and White will be writing computer code and building a prototype of their idea to help farmers get the most from their fields. They want to make a smart device that measures the nutrient profile of soil, presents the information in easy-to-understand graphics, and recommends what should be done to improve its fertility.

"You basically stick something in the soil and it will do all the data collection," White said.

The close friends attend enrichment courses in math at UW and weekend meetups for computer programming. Martinez also has a membership at the Perimeter Institute of Theoretical Physics, and attends lectures and events at the institute.

In June, Martinez and White were talking about entering a hackathon and they set their sights on Hack the North, even though the website says the competition is open to university undergrads and some exceptional high school students.

"But we said: 'Why not? Let's see what happens,'" Martinez said.

The 13-year-olds submitted resumés that detailed their computer-related accomplishments. White also built a website, and Martinez included findings from his microbiology experiments. When the organizers contacted the two with additional questions, Martinez and White got excited. When they were accepted into Hack the North, they could hardly believe it.

"I didn't actually expect to get in," White said.

Martinez loves doing math. Writing computer code provided him with another outlet for thinking about and applying math. He works in HTML, JavaScript, CSS, Java and Python.

White has been writing code for years, as well. "Actually, my dad, when I was five, showed me how to create a website. And he came home the next day to find that I had been working on it in his absence, and so then he showed me how to use this thing called GameMaker."

GameMaker is a drop-and-drag program for creating a computer game. From there, White learned how to use Visual Basic and a list of other computer languages.

White and Martinez both play piano and are studying in the Royal Ontario Conservatory's program. Martinez plays at the Conservatory's Grade 7 level, and White at the Grade 3 level. Martinez also plays the violin.

In the basement of his family home in Conestogo, Martinez keeps a fish tank where he breeds different species. He is fascinated by biology and the natural world. He and White work in a nearby room where there is a desk for two laptops, a whiteboard on one wall and some bookshelves on another.

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13-year-olds ready to Hack the North

WATERLOO — In what is believed to be a first for one of Canada's largest hackathons, two Grade 8 students will take part in a competition that is normally the domain of university undergrads from around the world.

Instead of attending Friday classes at Centennial Public School in Waterloo, Adam Martinez and Ethan White will be at Hack the North at the University of Waterloo.

Hack the North is billed as the largest hackathon in Canada. The weekend competition attracts 1,000 students who form teams and have 36 hours to complete a meaningful software or hardware project.

Among the judges this year are Eric Migicovsky, UW grad and founder of smartwatch maker Pebble, and Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian.

Martinez and White will be writing computer code and building a prototype of their idea to help farmers get the most from their fields. They want to make a smart device that measures the nutrient profile of soil, presents the information in easy-to-understand graphics, and recommends what should be done to improve its fertility.

"You basically stick something in the soil and it will do all the data collection," White said.

The close friends attend enrichment courses in math at UW and weekend meetups for computer programming. Martinez also has a membership at the Perimeter Institute of Theoretical Physics, and attends lectures and events at the institute.

In June, Martinez and White were talking about entering a hackathon and they set their sights on Hack the North, even though the website says the competition is open to university undergrads and some exceptional high school students.

"But we said: 'Why not? Let's see what happens,'" Martinez said.

The 13-year-olds submitted resumés that detailed their computer-related accomplishments. White also built a website, and Martinez included findings from his microbiology experiments. When the organizers contacted the two with additional questions, Martinez and White got excited. When they were accepted into Hack the North, they could hardly believe it.

"I didn't actually expect to get in," White said.

Martinez loves doing math. Writing computer code provided him with another outlet for thinking about and applying math. He works in HTML, JavaScript, CSS, Java and Python.

White has been writing code for years, as well. "Actually, my dad, when I was five, showed me how to create a website. And he came home the next day to find that I had been working on it in his absence, and so then he showed me how to use this thing called GameMaker."

GameMaker is a drop-and-drag program for creating a computer game. From there, White learned how to use Visual Basic and a list of other computer languages.

White and Martinez both play piano and are studying in the Royal Ontario Conservatory's program. Martinez plays at the Conservatory's Grade 7 level, and White at the Grade 3 level. Martinez also plays the violin.

In the basement of his family home in Conestogo, Martinez keeps a fish tank where he breeds different species. He is fascinated by biology and the natural world. He and White work in a nearby room where there is a desk for two laptops, a whiteboard on one wall and some bookshelves on another.